COBOL and varying argument lists, etc.

["Simon Coulter" <shc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hello,

I have spent a few hours with the manual and example code but haven't been able 
to 
determine satisfactory answers.

Question 1.
Does COBOL support a mechanism to determine the number of parameters passed in 
to the 
program or ILE procedure?  (Something like *PARMS or %PARMS in RPG IV)  I know 
COBOL 
programs can be called with a varying argument list but how does the program 
know how 
many parameters it received?  I expected a SPECIAL-NAME would be available but 
can't find 
one.  Must I test the parameter comparing the ADDRESS OF to NULL?

Question 2.
I have an RPG procedure in a service program with the following interface:
D getDay          PR             5I 0                                    
D   aDate                         D   DATFMT(*ISO) CONST OPTIONS(*NOPASS)

I am invoking that procedure from COBOL using the following methods:
     call linkage procedure "GETDAY"                  
          returning day-nbr       

     call linkage procedure "GETDAY"      
          using a-date           
          returning day-nbr       

Both procedure calls are in the same program and the parameters are defined 
thus:
01  a-date                  FORMAT DATE "@Y-%m-%d". 
01  day-nbr                 pic s9(04) binary.      

Would you expect both procedure calls to work assuming that the getDay 
procedure 
functions correctly?

Question 3.
Would you expect the %PARMS value to be set correctly in getDay after each of 
the above 
calls?  That is:
     call linkage procedure "GETDAY"                  
          returning day-nbr       

and %PARMS should be zero

     call linkage procedure "GETDAY"      
          using a-date           
          returning day-nbr       

and %PARMS should be one

Question 4.
Not strictly a COBOL question but it strikes me as useful to define the above 
RPG 
prototype with both *NOPASS and *OMIT options.  The nett result is the same but 
the 
caller can choose the call construct that suits them.  Comments?

Regards,
Simon Coulter.

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